Viewpoint: South Korea's stock market circuit breaker mechanism has failed, making it difficult to effectively halt sell-offs.

On Wednesday, South Korean retail investors faced forced liquidations of positions worth around 1.7 trillion won (approximately $1.2 billion). South Korea’s KOSPI index plunged more than 12% at one point, while SK Hynix dropped over 17% to mark its largest single-day decline on record. “There have been numerous forced liquidations today,” said Jung In Yun, global chief executive officer of Fibonacci Asset Management. “We need to wait until selling sentiment among retail investors eases before taking action.”

According to public market data, "Big Short" investor Michael Burry initiated short positions in NVDA at approximately $198.09, AMAT at ~$729.40, and SOXX at ~$642.80 on June 30. In early July, he opened direct short positions in Micron at ~$1,051.87. Around July 24, he added to his short positions in Micron, Nvidia, and SOXX. As of the U.S. stock market close on July 28, the unrealized gain on his AMAT short position is ~34.7%, SOXX ~23.3%, Micron Technology ~22.0%, and Nvidia ~0.5%. Excluding position weighting, the simple average unrealized gain of his short portfolio established between late June and early July is ~20.1%. Additionally, using the July 24 closing price as an approximation for his added short positions, as of the July 28 close, the unrealized gains on his added short positions in Micron, Nvidia, and SOXX are ~10.9%, 4.8%, and 6.4% respectively, with a simple average of ~7.4%. Due to the lack of specific details including short position size, option structure, position addition ratio, and whether any positions have been closed, his actual profit amount cannot be calculated at this time.

Upbit announces it will list META2 on its KRW, BTC, and USDT trading pairs.

According to Bitget market data, SK Hynix fell more than 17%, marking its largest single-day drop on record. South Korea’s KOSPI index plunged 11.00% intraday, currently trading at 5357.11 points.

According to Bitget market data, Japan’s Kioxia Holdings fell 15%, the Nikkei 225 Index dropped 2.58%, and SoftBank declined 9.74%.

SoftBank Group announced Wednesday it will issue 900 billion yen (approximately $550 million) in bonds to institutional investors, expanding its domestic and overseas financing channels to support its massive investments in the artificial intelligence sector. According to lead underwriter Daiwa Securities, the offering comprises 800 billion yen in three-year bonds and 100 billion yen in five-year bonds. The three-year bonds carry a coupon rate of 3.270%, 165 basis points higher than Japanese government bonds, while the five-year bonds have a coupon rate of 3.886%, 190 basis points above Japanese government bonds — the highest rate paid by any Japanese domestic corporate borrower for bonds of similar tenors. (Jinshi)